Being skinny is no guarantee of a healthy heart

[Warpy]

CHICAGO - You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy.

A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.
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In all weight categories, risk factors for heart problems were generally more common in older people, smokers and inactive people. Among obese people who were 50 to 64, just 20 percent were considered healthy compared with half of younger obese people.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26143255/

[Wapsie B]

1. Oh dear god, finally some validation.

What gets me is when someone with a supposedly perfect body drops dead from a massive MI. "He was the picture of heath," they'll say. Well no, he obviously was not. He was anything but that.

[theoldman]

2. Like so many other studies this one is a little misleading.

What they failed to mention is the genetic factor. If you are genetically prone to have a heart attack, you will have one no matter if you are thin or fat. This study may be great news for fat people but I would take it with a grain of salt.

[Eric J in MN]

4. Also, half of overweight people having "normal blood pressure and cholesterol"

..can be spun either way.

Good news for the overweight: there is a 50% chance that you have normal blood pressure and cholesterol.

Bad news for the overweight: there is a 50% chance that you have dangerous blood pressure and cholesterol.

[Eric J in MN]

3. Go vegan and you'll be consuming no cholesterol and no animal fat.

It will be healthy for your heart.

www.vegsource.com

[Warpy]

5. Only 10% of total cholesterol load comes from diet

The rest is produced by our own livers. Genetics determine 90% of our cholesterol number.

Yes, a vegan diet can be a very healthy one. It can also be a lousy diet if one is a junk food vegan.

[AllieB]

11. Not necessarily.

As Warpy said, only 10% of cholesterol comes from your diet. New research indicates that triglycerides and chronically elevated blood sugar are the true indicators of heart disease. High triglycerides are driven by carbohydrate consumption, not cholesterol consumption. The February 2008 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter (http://read.health.harvard.edu/user/user.fas/s=784/fp=3/tp=76?T=open_summary,965316&P=summary subscription only) contains an article titled Triglycerides: A Big Fat Problem. The article discusses the correlation of elevated triglyceride levels with the development of coronary artery disease, then lists eight methods for reducing elevated triglyceride levels. There is a considerable body of data-much of it ignored by the mainstream medical community (who want to push you to take statins) demonstrating a strong connection between elevated triglycdride levels and heart disease.

A vegetarian diet is a healthy one for some people, not all people. And your body needs fat to function.

[NatBurner]

6. i had a heart attack last month

and i look stunning in a swimsuit :)

i'm one of those ppl that never gains weight, and i ate whatever the hell i wanted. drank and smoked like i was a teenager too

so, now? i haven't had a cigarette in three weeks-
same with the jack black
and now i have to eat a bunch of healthy crap, which i'm grudgingly getting used to

anyway

i'm sorry that i had to learn that the hard way

[HamdenRice]

9. I'm so sorry about your heart attack

that would scare ths shit out of me.

Congrats on stopping smoking!

[zbdent]

7. Didn't Jim Fixx, running guru, die of a heart attack?

[SheilaT]

8. Yep. And his father had likewise

died of a heart attack at a similar age.

Again, genetic pre-disposition means a lot.

But it helps enormously not to smoke. One of the things smoking does is to cause the platelets to be sticky. Guess what? Sticky platelets can clog up an artery and WHAM! Heart attack.

[zbdent]

10. dang those sticky platelets ... I have to wash them by hand then ...

the damn dishwasher just doesn't cut it anymore ...

[SheilaT]

13. Very good.

:) :) :) :) :) :)

[Warpy]

12. Nicotine also causes smooth muscle to spasm

and smooth muscle is what lines your arteries. It's why your hands get cool and pale when you smoke.

It's also why it's lethal when there's a microscopic clot working its way through those little coronary arteries.

[SheilaT]

14. Now that I did not know.

But it makes sense. And I get so tired of trying to convince smokers that it's not just the way they reek is why they should give it up.

[Truth4Justice]

15. Neither is high or low cholesterol levels. No heart attacks in my family but COL levels are all high

According to all the "scientific" studies I should have had a stoke or MI by now.

Sorry, but it isn't going to happen. The drugs to control Cholesterol are worse then the
"disease", unless you like watching your muscles grow weak from statin medications.

It all about profit here in the USA. They need any excuse to jack your premiums up through the roof despite all the studies that show that many people have no issues with COL or LDL levels.

We need national healthcare now, to get these money-grubbing bastard insurance companies out of the medical profession.